"I think I have had my fill of this swill," Gurg continued."I have to say, a few particular piquant notes stick out, some that I noticed from the beginning.Nagi—the taint on your blood hid the base essence, at first, and it was so subtle in the spinal fluid I dared to think I was imagining it entirely.However, more of that unctuous older man's body revealed his plight to me.He had imbibed a concoction laced with a particular form of Clostridium Perfringens sub-mutate.This is a guess, at best, but the typical human infection of clostridium perfringens in and of itself causes a condition known as gas gangrene, which leads to necrosis of the flesh—an accelerated rotting accompanied by a putrid smell, caused by the aerated decomposition of cellular tissue.I daresay this Clostridium variant, whatever it was, had been fed on some kind of ethereal accelerant.Likely—and don't quote me on this—the clostridium in the mixture was a by-product caused by poor sanitation techniques.In other words, this was a drug created for intravenous injection, and poor sanitation and keeping standards caused an accelerated decomposition effect on human and vampire flesh."
"You thinking what I'm thinking?"Eddie asked Nagi.
"Yeah," Nagi said.
"I'm not in the loop," I said.
"Drug manufacturer," Eddie said."Clearly the guy was a druggie already.Whatever this was he got, it was going to push him over the moon, but it was tainted."
"So who could have manufactured something more potent than morphine?"I asked.
"Witches," the two of them said, as one.
5.
The Civil Wyrd Corpswas a short enough drive.I was happy to see sunshine again; to get the leering, pale, maggoty face of Gurg DeFoe out of my mind.I would be happy never ever seeing him or going to the zoo ever again.
"I don't know how you guys did it," I said.
"You have to do what you have to do sometimes," Eddie said.
"He's not so bad," Nagi said."A pleasant enough individual."
"You fed him parts of yourself and a murder victim," I said.
"At least he's honest about what he requires of you," Nagi said."Many are the friends who would state they want not from you yet dig their way in and steal as much as they can.Someone open about their voraciousness is in its own way a comfort."
"And you know.We do drink blood," Eddie said.
"That's different," I said.
"It's only different because in your eyes we're fuckable," Eddie said.There was a bitterness to his voice.I opened my mouth to respond, but before I had time to even think of anything, Yara's voice from the front seat floated back.
"We're here."
It could have beenan office building.I mean, it was an office building, at least in appearance.A huge billboard outside said CWC Holdings, Inc.A list of different offices was underneath, on a plaque.
"This is crazy," I said.
"Were you expecting a hidden castle or something?"Eddie asked.
"No, but I wasn't expecting—what, an osteoarthritis specialty clinic?Oh God, this list of offices is so boring."
"That's part of the glamor on it," Eddie said."How many times have you been in a medical building or a suite of offices in a city and seen a ton of listings for people whose services you'll never use in a thousand years?You don't even know anybody who would use them.Reading through them is pointless because you're there for one building or the UPS store that happened to set up shop.Total witch space."
"I don't believe that for a second," I said.
"Look at that one," Nagi said.
"Corn removal surgeon?"I asked."Oh God, make it stop!"
"The witches' first line of defense.Human inability to pay attention to things that don't directly concern them."
"But what if… I don't know.What if a human gets past that?"
"They have other defensive protocols," Nagi said."Have you wondered why there are so many Geese in the city, and why they're so angry?"
"You're kidding me," I said.
